The cruise ship Britannia was docked in the port of Palma on the island of Mallorca, but was blown adrift by strong winds. It then collided with a nearby freighter. The Britannia would have suffered damage to the hull, according to eyewitnesses, among others The Guardian and BBC, but according to the captain it would not be structural. Nevertheless, the ship will remain in Palma for a technical examination at least until Monday.
According to testimonies in British media, panic broke out on board the Britannia. Sun beds rolled over the deck, tent cloth flew through the air and the rain came pouring down from the sky. Passenger footage shows the ship nearly crashing into the rocks of breakwaters in the harbor. “It looked like a paper boat bobbing on the waves,” said one passenger. A number of slightly injured passengers had to be cared for on board.
The cruise ship Britannia, which was commissioned in 2015, is 330 meters long and weighs 143,000 tons, according to the company’s website. It has 13 guest decks and a capacity of 3,647 guests and 1,350 crew members.
On Mallorca there was wind up to 120 kilometers per hour and torrential rain on Sunday. The Britannia, with a capacity of about 5,000 passengers and crew, left Southampton, UK on August 18 for a voyage to Cádiz, Ibiza and Mallorca and is expected to return on September 1.